In Perspective: God is the fresh wind blowing away the stink of sin

My freshman year in college I was introduced to a horrible reality.The reality of the communal restroom.There was much about college that I thoroughly enjoyed, but this was not one of them.I lived on a floor with about 50 other freshmen and there was one very large bathroom.I am not talking about some large luxury bathroom suite.I am talking about a massive shower with about 10 shower heads and no walls, seven sinks lined up side by side, a matching row of toilets in stalls and that was about it.And this was the bathroom for 50, 18- to 19-year-old kids recently freed from the homes they grew up in.I will spare you the details, but you can imagine what this many 18- to 19-year-old kids with a new found independence could do aroma wise to a confined area like this.

I can still remember many a time walking into that bathroom and being smacked in the face by the scent.It was one of those “unique” aromas that stays with you forever and that reminders of send chills down your spine.There were many days when you would have to bear down so you could simply brush your teeth on one breath and hopefully get out of there as soon as possible.

But there was this weird thing that happened.If you stayed in the bathroom for a few minutes, the smell seemed to go away.I mean completely gone.After five minutes, it was no problem to talk with someone while you brushed your teeth or washed your clothes in the sink (that’s normal, right) or threw wet noodles, wads of shaving cream or various other products at the people in the shower room.It was like it became a new world without the reek.That is until you walked out into the hall and got some (relatively) fresh air.Then you were quickly reminded that the stink was still there.You just got used to it.

Why do I share this with you?That bathroom was sin.I don’t mean literally.Well, maybe literally, but I that is not the point.I mean the smell experience was just like sin.The more you hang around it, the less it stinks and the more comfortable you become with it.No matter how bad the stink, the longer you lingered around it, the less offensive it became.

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Life in this world is kind of like that.This world stinks.Sometimes literally, but I am speaking figuratively for the moment.This world is riddled with the effects of sin.And those effects, in the lives of all people too, cause our land to have a general nasty stank to it.The only problem is you can’t open a window or step out for a bit.As a result, we easily get used to it.Truth is, we would never even notice the stink unless a fresh wind blew by.

That fresh wind was the Holy Spirit who opened our eyes to the stink.Yet, even as followers of Christ, we need to be daily reminded of the stink we live in so we don’t become too accustomed to it and begin to embrace it and had around with it.In fact, we are to be like air fresheners in this stinky land.But to do it well, we must allow God to remind us daily of not just sin, but who it was that has cleansed us from it, and what that means to our lives.

How?By spending time in his word.By spending time with other believers.By walking in daily obedience to Christ.By prayer.And as we do this and lean not on our own understanding, but in all our ways acknowledge God, he will make straight our paths and not only give us constant breaths of fresh wind, but work through us to allow others a scent of his love for them.

— The Rev. Jon Tripp is the pastor of God’s Grace Bible Church in Downingtown. His column appears every other week in the Daily Local News. To contact him, call 610-441-2387 or send an e-mail to pastorjon@godsgracebible.org.